Marina di Raguas - Sicily

THE START TO A NEW CRUISING SEASON 2012

Hello to you all again

Having left New Zealand on 16^th March we stopped off in Brisbane for the weekend staying with Alec’s brother Richard and his wife ‘Kayleen.  Then it was on to Dubai where we spent time with Brigitte and Dan, caught up with friends, then flew on to Malta, then ferry to Sicily to re-join SHAMAL on 4^th April.

We have had a slow start to this cruising season.  In fact as I start this email we are still in Marina di Ragusa in southern Sicily where we left SHAMAL at the end of the last sailing season.  We have been told April is a little early to head on out as the weather is still very unsettled, and yes they are right about that.  The sun is out at the moment, but big black clouds are passing over with rain, it is still only between 18-22deg dropping to about 10-13deg at night, sometimes cooler.  And the winds seem to blow every day getting up to 30kts at times. BUT all is well and we are making progress at getting SHAMAL in order to leave here – hopefully by the end of the month.  We arrived back to find all was well with her – stilled tied up with no damage from the winter storms that passed through.  Unlike one of the Marinas up the coast from here and across in Malta where boats were lost in the Marinas when mooring lines broke as 2mt swells crashed in.  We did have some fine black volcanic ash on board from Mt. Etna, which is only about 50 miles away.

Greece to Sicily

Wednesday 14^th September.

Well we are now on our way to the first of the Greek Islands – Limnos – in the Eastern Sporades.  Limnos is quite beautiful.  We stop off in the port of Myrina and climb the hill to the Genoan castle with its marvellous view of the town.  The weather is perfect.   Here we see the local deer roaming among the old ruins of the castle and even coming into the outskirts of the town.  Then a couple of days later with the wind on our stern we set sail again, having  good runs, stopping in the Northern Sporades at Kira Panyia, Alonnisos, and Skiathos.  It was at Skiathos that we pick up our Dubai friends Rob and Suzy, and after spending a day with a hire car exploring the Island, it was time to up anchor and continue south.  It is now getting cooler and we had heavy rain, thunder and lightning the day before we left.  The morning we decided to up anchor and go – NO - we are stuck fast to the bottom.  Alec had to go over the side and see what our problem was. He found our anchor chain around a huge old anchor that had been abandon, so, with a little manoeuvring and a couple more dives we were free, only to get caught up again.  Down he goes again, and this time the chain is caught around two more unused anchors.  It takes just under two hours for us to get clear of all the rubbish on the bottom before we are on our way.  BUT, we now have another problem. We have a broken anchor chain guide.  This is the second time it has broken on us.  The first was on the Australian Coast.  This will mean we will have to pull the anchor up by hand till we can get a new one.  Thank goodness we have a strong man Rob on board. 

Istanbul - Gallipoli

Hello Again,

 A lot of water has passed under the hulls since I last sat down at the computer to send out my screed.  Actually I am very lucky to have a computer to write to you on, and it is only thanks to Alec’s brother Rich, that I do – will fill you in on that shortly!!

 Our first night just outside Istanbul was spent anchored outside the fishing harbour of Yesilkoy.  The following morning Alec decided to take the tender in and see if there was space for us to tie up inside. Most fishing harbours the berthing fees are quite reasonable but finding a vacant berth can be a problem. He found only one, a corner berth, so we upped anchored and motored on in.  WRONG MOVE – the wind got up just as we went in and we were blown sideways getting the starboard keel caught on someone’s mooring chain. For the next twenty minutes we were held fast, fending ourselves off the bows of a couple of other boats.  No one came to help, they all just stood and watched.  The wind kept pushing us sideways onto the chain, and being a corner berth we had no room to manoeuvre.  I climbed on board the offending boat and loosened off their mooring line, then suddenly we came free, so we motored on out deciding to give that place a miss, to find a small swimming bay next door which was surrounded by a break-water, so we dropped anchor right in the middle of the bay and there we stayed for the next couple of nights. No problem!  Better than paying 100 Euros per night in a Marina/Resort.